Car LED tail lights horrendous PWM

Anyone else notice the horrendous PWM on LED car tail lights ?

I hate it with a vengeance and it drives me to distraction.

Especially on some Caddys. Makes me feel like I’m S) driving, not that I’ve ever done that.

Its not just rear lights, I’ve seen a few front led lights flickering away too!

Yeah I just saw them last night for the first time .I tried to get a lookto see what kind of car it was but all I could surmise was it was almost new ..Chevy??Are they doing this from the factory ?? OMG it was horrible .I felt like a cat chasing a laser pointer .

PWM trails about twice the length of the car

There was discussion about this matter somewhere in the net.

I believe someone had studied this case, whether it would save energy / add costs to manufacture etc. doing it differently.
AFAIK the only reasonable pro in that PWM was, that IF IT causes some interference with other electric apps, it would be easier to filter out…
That is the only thing I remember about it, that only pr0 is also a bit theoretic…

I noticed it only on video on expensive cars. I thought because they were racing it was something else. But later discovered that the front daytime running lights on a Benz or something were doing it on video to.

…I however have not noticed such in person.

BTW, does pretty new Prius have this PWM?
I once noticed, that it does not flicker? 2010-2012 maybe, can anyone confirm?

They also tend to trigger the laser radar sensor in my radar detector…

I’ve been noticing that on the tail lights a lot. PWM doesn’t bother me on a flashlight, but it sure bothers me on a car taillight. The Cadillac version is easy to identify; horrible. :Sp I can spot a Caddy ahead of me from a mile away at night.

Hate it. A lot.

I actually have an outlet night light that refuses to be turned off via it’s reflected pwm light but will turn off from other sources.

I bet this could be a benefit but to me I’d rather have a linear controlled light than a perfectly modulated slow pwm one. Plus aren’t most car lights just regulating based on activity, not light output so this would be irrelevant anyways? But yeah I’m not a big fan of the low pwm fade on car’s now, It shouldn’t be that hard to step it up or move to linear with the prices that cars cost.

Noticed it a lot and really dislike it, some seemed to be 50hertz or there abouts. But some of the newest cars dont seem as bad maybe they upped the pwm. My theory is its a fashion thing, they made the pwm so low you can see the flicker to draw attention to the new fangled Led rear lights….

Sounds like it’s doing it’s job :bigsmile:

It’s doing half the job; draws attention, just the wrong type. I’m surprised the DOT doesn’t restrict the frequency allowed so it’s not so distracting.

I'm sorry, did you just use the words 'Prius' and 'pretty' it the same sentence? O.O

That is exactly my thinking.

the buses here have horrible PWM on their tail lights…it’s distracting…

Nah they can’t do that, then they’d have to restrict the strobe types for the police because THOSE THINGS ARE DRIVING ME BATTY AND BLIND.

Found this on another forum
Tail lights

Green indicator, center console

Hazard indicator button

I noticed this when Cadillac first started using LED taillights and I hate it as well. Of course, I also hate the 60Hz flicker on LED Christmas bulbs. I like the richer colors that the LEDs can produce, but it's distracting driving through streets at Christmas and seeing that flicker with every bit of motion...